Arcade type crane games are a mainstay of video arcades, pizza parlors, restaurant lobbies and various other locations where games are played. The crane game includes a housing with a play area that incorporates prizes that can be viewed by a player through transparent walls, and a pick-up device that hovers over the prizes and lowers in an attempt to pick-up and capture a prize for the player. Traditional prizes include plush animals, toys, candy, plastic bubbles filled with items, and the like. Two of the most prevalent pick up devices are claw-type devices and vacuum devices. Crane games of this type can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,513,772 and 4,718,667, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference.
The traditional crane games of the past have largely relied to a large extent on the skill of the player. Maneuvering the pick-up device to the desired location in an attempt to pick up a particular prize and exercising the skill to capture the prize was part of the lure of the game. However, there are situations where it is more desirable to rely on pure luck rather than a combination of skill and luck. The present invention is directed to a crane game where skill has been reduced or completely eliminated and the game is purely or predominantly a game of chance.